MAJA MA GUJARAT
DABHOI
Location: 30 kms South-East of Vadodara
Dabhoi is also an important Jain pilgrimage centre and the gateway to the Sardar Sarovar Dam. It is the place where the famous Gujarati poet Dayaram settled down to compose the ‘garbis’ that are sung till today with great reverence. The city has a number of old heritage and colonial style buildings some built under the aegis of the royal Gaekwad family. A beautiful school building in the name of Ganpat Rao Gaekwad lay overgrown and abandoned.
Dabhoi has one of the world’s oldest and biggest narrow gauge railway junctions. The railway station was set up by the royal Gaekwad family more than 150 years ago. The train would be lugged by a pair of buffalos then as the tracks were too light to take the load of the steam engine. Amongst other things the train carried cotton from the farmers of Dabhoi to the mills of Bombay. The station has been renovated in the past few years
DABHOI
Location: 30 kms South-East of Vadodara
We arrived in Dabhoi on Dussehra day.
The objective of our visit was to view the remains of the 12th
century Vamavart fort made by the Solanki
king Siddhraj Jaisingh I to fortify the ancient city of Darbhavati. It
was altered during the time of the Vaghela king, Visaldev in the
early 13th century. It is one of the few examples of Hindu military
architecture which still remain but just barely.
All that remains of the fort today are
the four entrance gates, one in each cardinal direction. They are named the
Vadodari Bhagol or the West gate, The Nandodi Bhagol or the south gate,
the Champaneri Bhagol or the North gate and the Hira Bhagol or the west gate. While the
first three gates are named after the cities in whose direction they face the
last is named after the architect Hira who did much of the restoration work.
The original architect of the fort is said to be one Deva Shilpi.
The Hira Bhagol is the most ornate
with intricate carving of gods and goddesses from the Hindu Pantheon with 6
pilasters on each side of the gate supporting as many corbelled brackets. The
Kali temple is adjoining the gate on the right side and is profusely carved.
The gates are surrounded by the living city and traffic flows around them thick
and fast. To think that built civilisations more than a millennia apart were still co-existing says a lot about the intangible living heritage of our
historical cities.
We were witness to a very interesting
celebration on the day of our visit which also happened to be Dussehra. The
worship of the mother goddess had concluded and a colourful procession passed
us as we watched fascinated. Women carried a pot of mud with shoots of grain
growing from them in thick clumps. Some of them were possessed by the ‘devi’
and were dancing with abandon. They were led by the men beating drums ahead of
them as they danced around the locality. Finally the ‘images’ were immersed in
a nearby tank.
Today is also the day when people
enjoy eating the local speciality of fafda and jalebi. The colourful stalls
were a sight to behold.
Dabhoi is also an important Jain pilgrimage centre and the gateway to the Sardar Sarovar Dam. It is the place where the famous Gujarati poet Dayaram settled down to compose the ‘garbis’ that are sung till today with great reverence. The city has a number of old heritage and colonial style buildings some built under the aegis of the royal Gaekwad family. A beautiful school building in the name of Ganpat Rao Gaekwad lay overgrown and abandoned.
Dabhoi has one of the world’s oldest and biggest narrow gauge railway junctions. The railway station was set up by the royal Gaekwad family more than 150 years ago. The train would be lugged by a pair of buffalos then as the tracks were too light to take the load of the steam engine. Amongst other things the train carried cotton from the farmers of Dabhoi to the mills of Bombay. The station has been renovated in the past few years
